Stereo Stuff

[cuttyman9]

Stereo info
I'm a tad bored so I figured I would put some of the info I learned tinkering on my cars audio system.
If you have any questions as I go along I have a reasonable amount of knowledge and would be glad to help.

I'll start with what I found fits in my celica.

Initially I only wanted bass so I quickly added a subwoofer with an amplifier. I had two 12" phoenix gold octane-R's they are rated at 250w RMS each with a very lame amp (2.5:2 octane-R phoenix gold) and a sealed box that the two subs shared. It did the job then but it’s addicting.

I later was given a JL audio 10" W1v2 and an eclipse EA2000 amp. This outdid the two 12's without trying (partially because I had the same wattage with only one sub)

Both of these systems were initially put together by audio shops for whoever had them before me, all together not impressed after finding out on my own that I could do much much better.

I switched to a 400 watt rockford fosgate amp (P400.2) which I ran bridged for the JL which made it quite respectable given the JL was only rated to 300/600 (RMS/peak) it made a huge difference but the amp wasn't really ideal for pushing to the limits because it overheated a bit (smelled funky but kept running)

So I sold both setups (my cousin ended up with the PG's and changed amps which woke them up substantially then changed to a box I had built which made them much more aggressive)

I picked up a 10" alpine type X rated at 1000 RMS which was a beast of a 10" sub, it was stuffed into the box my JL used but I don't think the box ever did it justice (now its in my room)
I ran the 10 off the rockford fosgate amp until I switched to a 1000 watt Hifonics Zeus amp (ZRX1500.1d). The hifonics amp was rated at 1500 @ 1 ohm and 1000 @ 2 ohms so it worked perfect on the 2 ohm load range. It powered it nicely and is probably the best overall performer I've heard doing highs and lows(high for a subwoofer that is) flawlessly. It wasnt setup for shaking stuff like the pair of 15's I recently purchased do.

One thing to note that when going to a large amplifier like the Zeus I found it helpful to change to a higher amperage alternator because the stock one let the battery dip pretty low and the celica's come with a very small alternator from the get go. Also I went to a smaller pulley to keep the amps up at idle.

The 15's I recently installed occupy most of my trunk area, and shake everything. I picked them up with an amp the guy was using which did a very good job in his newer jeep. The amp is an off brand amp, Performance Teknique (ICBM-POWER) rated at 1750w @ 1 ohm and 1250w @ 2 ohms which is pretty good. The subs are 15" Kicker Solo classics rated at 750 RMS each in a ported box (quite large) which after some calculations I found it is built for around 35hz, good to hit a reasonably wide range of music but because they are 15's mostly lows. They hit really, really hard, they make everything shake and blur my vision. It’s almost too much.




So after all of this fiddling with woofers I've learned;
-pick the music you plan to listen to
-pick a subwoofer size based on the space available, music desired, highest RMS/dollar (larger the woofer the worse they are for playing bass clearly)
-pick a box that works with the recommended enclosure size (lots more to it than that but it’s a start)
-get an amp close to the RMS power of the subs (under is always better than over) you're pushing as well as matching the impedance of the subwoofers to the amp



So here’s a list of my system;
-two cadence FX8M4 8” 4 ohm door midbass speakers 
-JVC KW-AV50 in dash touch screen
-two Infinity Kappa 42.9I 4”  4 ohm front speakers
-two Rockford Fosgate Power  t162-s 6.5” 4 ohm speakers without the tweeters
- stock factory tweeters, two front and two rear(I added the rears as my Celica is a GT)
-two 15 inch Kicker Solo classics dvc 2 ohm each coil subwoofers
-one Rockford Fosgate P400.2
-one Hifonics Zeus ZRX1500.1D

I have the two kickers wired in series at the VC’s and parallel on the amp between the two subs for a two ohm load at the amp for 500 watt’s each. They are wired to the subwoofer RCA on the deck with a splitter.
The 8” door speakers and the rear 6.5” speakers are wired to the amp in parallel for a two ohm load at the amp for 200 watt’s to each. This is wired to the rear setting on the deck to allow me to fade to the rear and apply more power to them vs the tweeters which are all on the front setting.
The front speakers are setup to run off the rear setting but for now they are on the front with the tweeters.

Hooking up the speakers to match the impedance of the amplifier is key, if it’s done wrong it can damage the amplifier or sound less than spectacular.